Girona

Despite only coming up through the playoffs, newly promoted Girona went on to put together an incredible 2022/23 campaign, in which they were challenging for Europe and ultimately finished 10th. Under coach Michel, Girona played a bold and brave brand of football, getting many bodies forward in attack even if it left space in behind on defence. The result was that Girona scored the fifth-most goals in the division and also conceded the fifth-most goals. With Michel deciding to stay on, there is still some optimism at Girona this summer, even though several of last season’s starters have left. They’ve lost the two 1s in their 4-1-4-1 formation, as holding midfielder Oriol Romeu and striker Taty Castellanos have both departed. Still, some interesting signings have been made, not least those of Daley Blind and Pablo Torre. There is a fear that this Girona squad will be overall weaker than that of last season, but the positive is that so much of their success was down to the unique system and the energy with which they played. If Girona can keep that up and keep taking risks, while improving the defence slightly, they should be strong enough to finish in the upper part of the bottom half of the table.